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''Linguistics at School'' is a volume about the current state of research and practice regarding the integration of linguistics into primary and secondary school curricula. It is a carefully edited (Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck) collection of 23 chapters that all, in different ways, relate to language awareness (first language/mother tongue) in primary and secondary education. Ray Jackendoff contributes with the foreword, in which he highlights three themes in the book: first, the importance of validating students' own language and/or dialects; second, the value of learning about language by playing with it, using metalinguistic activities (cf. Brown 2004: 4); and third, the fact that linguistics may be applied not only to language arts, but also to other school subjects.

In their introduction, Denham and Lobeck matter-of-factly declare that linguistics is not comprehensively integrated into teacher education (at least not in the United States) and it is, therefore, largely absent in the K-12 curriculum. Furthermore, the editors notice that their book is evidence of the fact that the tide is starting to turn thanks to linguists' increased involvement in education. They state that the target audience of ''Linguistics at School'' consists of linguists, teachers, and teacher educators, or anyone else who might be interested in the integration of linguistic knowledge into education. The focus of the book is on various successful ways to improve education about language and language awareness; it is in this respect that linguists can make a difference. Most of the chapters relate to schools in the US, but there are also some examples from other countries, such as the UK, Australia, Bulgaria, and Russia.

The book has three parts. Part I is called ''Linguistics from the top-down: encouraging institutional change'' and contains chapters 1-8. In part II, ''Linguistics from the bottom-up: encouraging classroom change'' (chapters 9-15), all contributions deal with projects where the approach is the opposite (bottom-up) to that of part I (top-down). Finally, part III of the book is labeled ''Vignettes: voices from the classroom'' (chapters 16-23) and includes texts by school teachers, all of whom have embraced the idea of using a linguistically informed method of teaching, often inspired by and/or in collaboration with some renowned linguist(s), i.e., one (or more) of the contributors in the first two parts of the volume. Below, I summarize each chapter.

Part 1

Chapter 1: ''Ideologies of language, art, and science'' (Edwin Battistella). The aim of Battistella's chapter is to explore why linguists have failed to manage what he calls ''the misperceptions about linguistics'' (p. 13) and, furthermore, how the scientific field of linguistics has failed to manage its relation to culture and to the goals of education. He also compares public perceptions of linguistics with those of two other fields, namely biology and visual arts.

Chapter 2: ''Bringing linguistics into the school curriculum: not one less'' (Wayne O'Neil). The focus of O'Neil's chapter is on introducing formal linguistics into the English-language curriculum, in particular with regard to generative grammar. Thus, he sums up the (hi)story about ''Project English'', a top-down project funded by the US Office of Education in the 1960s that, according to O'Neil, brought an end to what may have been the last, best attempt to bring formal linguistics into general education in the US. Project English was a failure and O'Neil concludes that linguists who wish to see their field enter the schools should carefully consider any queries from school practitioners that come their way.

Chapter 3: ''How linguistics has influenced schools in England'' (Richard Hudson). This chapter is about recent changes in the education system of England, where all the changes can be traced to the influence of linguistics; Hudson argues that ''an extreme reaction against arid grammar-teaching in the 1960s and 1970s produced a language-teaching vacuum which linguistics has filled'' (p. 35). The changes he talks about are supported by teachers as well as by official legislation and the most successful example is the A-level course in English Language, ALEL. One reason for ALEL's popularity is claimed to be its focus on texts that both students and teachers can relate to. The focus on texts is in contrast to what linguists traditionally focus on (i.e., the language system).

Chapter 4: ''Supporting the teaching of knowledge about language in Scottish schools'' (Graeme Trousdale). Trousdale's chapter deals with the current situation in Scotland regarding the teaching of knowledge about language (KAL) in schools, and the increasing collaboration between linguists working at universities, educationalists, Scottish writers, and, most importantly, school teachers (mainly English teachers at secondary level). One outcome of this collaborative work is the establishment of CLASS (the Committee for Language Awareness in Scottish Schools) and A Curriculum for Excellence, ACfE. Another is the LILT (Language Into Languages Teaching) project, which allows for cross-curricular reinforcement of particular linguistic terms and concepts relevant to the study of the first, second and other languages of Scotland's pupils. A third outcome is a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course developed at and offered by the University of Edinburgh which, among other things, has led to tailored online KAL resources for in-service teachers.

Chapter 5: ''Envisioning linguistics in secondary education: an Australian exemplar'' (Jean Mulder). In Australia, more specifically in Victoria, the subject Victorian Certificate of Education English Language (VCE English Language) is the result of collaborative work between university-based linguists and secondary school English teachers working from the top-down to introduce this new subject. ''Traditional'' grammar was abandoned from the English curriculum in Australia in the 1960s, which led to a void that modern descriptive linguistics has filled. The term grammar has been replaced by two terms that work very well: KAL and language awareness. Traditionally grammar was taught and learned in an environment that was devoid of context. Now, in short, Mulder describes that teaching and learning start with a close study of texts (cf. chapter 3, the ALEL in England) where teachers gradually introduce metalinguistic terms and linguistic concepts within the context of a particular aspect of language use in the texts. KAL is viewed as a means for taking language apart in order for learners to see the ways in which people communicate effectively. Both bottom-up and top-down processes are stressed and it is concluded that an effective collaboration between university-based linguists and teachers demands that both parts are able to position themselves as both learners and experts.

Chapter 6: ''Linguistics and educational standards: the California experience'' (Carol Lord & Sharon Klein). In this chapter, Lord and Klein provide an overview of the educational standards in the US and then focus on the situation in California. It is claimed that one of the ways in which linguistics can be woven into the school curriculum is by helping to shape the structure of teacher preparation programs. Moreover, the authors stress the need for linguists to learn from the experience of educators and classroom practitioners (which echoes Mulder's suggestion in chapter 5).

Chapter 7: ''Developing sociolinguistic curricula that help teachers meet standards'' (Jeffrey Reaser). Also in this chapter, the author points out the need for linguists to work in collaboration with classroom practitioners. The aim of the chapter is to examine efforts of encouraging teachers to include sociolinguistic materials in their classroom by creating materials that help them meet the prescribed requirements of their state's (or district's) standard course of study. Two curricula are presented in the chapter; first, the high school curriculum that accompanies the PBS documentary ''Do you speak American?'' (DYSA) and second, the dialect awareness curriculum ''Voices of North Carolina'', which is aimed at 8th-grade students. DYSA is an online resource (a three-hour long travelogue, starring Robert MacNeil) on language variation in the USA and, according to the author, an ideal resource for collaboration between social studies and English. The Voices of North Carolina curriculum was created so that it dovetailed with learning objectives of the standard course of study for social studies. Reaser concludes that both these curricula are sociolinguistics programs and they ''will only be embraced when teachers view materials as beneficial to their students and useful to their jobs'' (p. 105).

Chapter 8: ''Linguistic development in children's writing: changing classroom pedagogies'' (Debra Myhil). In this chapter, Myhil opens up by pointing out a methodological flaw: Research over the past fifty years has come to the conclusion that grammar teaching fails to prove its role as beneficial or useful in writing instruction. However, in these research studies, Myhil claims, researchers have not distinguished between (a) studies which analyze the impact of formal grammar teaching in which pupils take a separate grammar course and (b) studies which consider how writing instruction that draws attention to grammatical concepts impacts upon learners' writing (see p.108). The chapter argues that the place of linguistics in the writing classroom is twofold: (1) to provide learners with metalinguistic understanding to enable them to become confident writers and (2) to provide teachers with an understanding of how to assess learners' development in writing and their instructional needs. Myhil discusses how to work with lexical choice and sentence structures in students' texts and the chapter points to the potential value of using linguistic perspectives in the writing classroom. Moreover, the chapter provides annotated writing samples. In closing the author observes that ''changing classroom pedagogies requires an acknowledgement of the significance of assured linguistic subject knowledge and strategic action to address it'' (p. 120).

Part 2

Chapter 9: ''From cold shoulder to funded welcome: Lessons from the trenches of dialectally diverse classrooms'' (Rebecca S. Wheeler). Chapter 9 is basically a piece of teaching methodological advice about how to better succeed in teaching Standard English, especially in dialectally diverse classrooms. The idea is first to help students become aware of the fact that their vernacular language is rule-governed and systematic. In order to accomplish this, linguistic expertise in the classroom is needed. Equipped with the insight that students are following grammar patterns of their language variety (e.g. African American English), teachers can lead their students in critical thinking to foster the learning of Standard English grammar. The use of three strategies is suggested and explained in detail (for example by use of samples of student work): scientific method, comparison and contrast, and code switching as meta-cognition.

Chapter 10: ''Positioning linguists as learners in K-12 schools'' (Long Peng & Jean Ann). In the present chapter, the authors emphasize that teachers rarely find the time or mental energy to reflect upon their own teaching, neither do they have much time to evaluate teaching materials or students' responses to what happens in the classroom. In Peng and Ann's project, which is set in an elementary school in New York, the teachers were given the time to reflect upon their practice and, eventually, they defined the linguistic issues they saw as important to solve. These issues turned out to be identical to those of the linguists and dealt with, for example, allophones versus phonemes, word order in the Spanish and English noun phrase, bilingual education, the tense system of English, and the influence of L1 on L2.

Chapter 11. ''Fostering teacher change: effective professional development for sociolinguistic diversity'' (Julie Sweetland). Sweetland's chapter is about strategies for change of teaching practices in the classroom. The first strategy discussed is about linking desired innovations to existing concerns and practices. In Sweetland's project, she incorporated linguistic awareness activities for both students and teachers into language arts instruction (4th-6th grade). The goal was to improve student writing; this part connects with chapters 9 and 10. The second strategy was to treat negative language attitudes as a baseline, not a barrier. Beforehand, no teachers looked at the vernacular as a potential source of strength and that practice can change only after attitudes have been ameliorated. Thus, Sweetland, in reference to Guskey (2002), argues that it is not professional development per se that changes teachers' attitudes and beliefs, but rather their experience of successful implementation. The third and final strategy has to do with capitalizing on the influence of classroom practice; that is, hands-on experience in a classroom context has an even greater impact on ameliorating negative teacher attitudes, than just exposure to new information. The central finding of the chapter is that ''teachers who implemented dialect-based instruction internalized pluralist attitudes to a much greater degree than did teachers who only passively engaged with the descriptive perspective on language and this offers a challenge to scholars concerned with issues of sociolinguistic diversity and educational equity'' (p. 173).

Chapter 12: ''On promoting linguistics literacy: bringing language science to the English classroom'' (Maya Honda, Wayne O'Neil, and David Pippin). The present chapter has a focus on linguistics literacy, something which is neglected in American schools, according to the authors. From their perspective, the English classroom is ''an underused laboratory for the pursuit of serious scientific inquiry'' (p. 176). The chapter presents a model of linguist-teacher collaboration where 5th-grade students are encouraged to do linguistics in a similar fashion as linguists do research (examination of language data, forming hypotheses based on available data, and so forth). A morphophonological problem set (noun pluralization in English), which has been successfully used in independent and public schools settings in Seattle, is used as an example.

Chapter 13: ''Linguistics in a primary school'' (Kristin Denham). Denham has experience from teaching linguistics in a multi-grade primary classroom in the US. She hopes to change the way in which knowledge about language is taught and the ways in which it can best be integrated into K-12 education. Her findings are in line with those presented in chapter 12, namely that a scientific approach to teaching linguistics in primary school works well. She finds it particularly interesting that reluctant or struggling learners excelled at linguistic problem-solving. The chapter ends with a list of ten suggestions about the incorporation of linguistics into K-12 education.

Chapter 14: ''Educating linguists: how partner teaching enriches linguistics'' (Anne Lobeck). This chapter echoes the themes of several other chapters and is a summary of a two-year project (funded by the National Science Foundation) that Lobeck and Denham were in charge of. The overarching goal of the project was ''to improve science education through a non-traditional gateway, namely through the science of language'' (p. 206). The present chapter presents the background of the project, its design, and main conclusions.

Chapter 15: ''The Linguistic Olympiads: academic competitions in linguistics for secondary school students'' (Ivan Derzhanski & Thomas Payne). The purpose of chapter 15 is to give an overview of the Linguistic Olympiad concept (problem-solving competition in linguistics for secondary school students). The authors argue for its significance for linguistics and related fields on a number of levels. The chapter also provides specific descriptions of how the Linguistics Olympiad has been implemented in Russia, Bulgaria, the US, and other countries.

Part 3

Chapter 16: ''And you can all say 'haboo': enriching the standard language arts curriculum with linguistic analysis'' (Angela Roh). Chapter 16 is the first chapter in the third part of the book; in other words, it opens up the vignettes, the voices from the classroom. Roh's chapter introduces an example of how linguistics is used in an American Literature classroom in Washington State. There, discussions about dialects and registers are initiated by use of the poetry of Langston Hughes. Another example of incorporating linguistics into the classroom is to examine the morphology of the place names in the Puget Sound region (where the students reside) when Native American languages are discussed. Finally, for all curious readers, I may add that the word 'haboo' in the title is from the Lushootseed language; it is an expected response from an audience that has listened to a story; by saying 'haboo,' you indicate that you have paid attention (p. 235).

Chapter 17: ''Code switching: connecting written and spoken language patterns'' (Karren Mayer & Kirstin New). Mayer and New are literacy teachers at Norfolk Public school (in the US). They realized that it ''was time to retire the red pen method'' (p. 214) because it was not successful: it did not improve their students' writing and the students developed negative attitudes. After having taken a professional development course on Rebecca Wheeler's code switching teaching strategy (see chapter 9), Mayer and New changed their practice with the aim to teach their students to code switch from informal to formal writing, depending on the situation. Students were asked, for example, to volunteer samples of informal language and their formal counterparts. One reason why code switching is effective, the authors claim, is that students are allowed to come up with their own language examples. In the classroom, identifying informal patterns in children's literature was also used, followed by discussions about the formal way to present the text. They conclude that the benefit of using code switching is that it allows teachers to address writing in a non-threatening fashion by accepting and validating students' spoken grammar.

Chapter 18: ''A primary teacher's linguistic journey'' (Deidre Carlson). Carlson, a primary teacher in the US, contributes with a chapter on how she became committed to incorporating linguistics into her teaching thanks to her collaborative work with Kristin Denham. She stresses ''the power of having the choice'' (p. 249) for students. For example, Carlson argues for the importance of being able to choose between using formal or informal language. Consequently, if students understand that teachers want to provide them with such language choices (rather than robbing them of their way of speaking) it will make a significant difference in how students receive language lessons.

Chapter 19: ''Why do VCE English Language?'' (Caroline Thomas and Sara Wawer). This chapter is a compilation of the experiences of developing the subject Victorian Certificate of Education English Language (VCE English Language) in senior years at Victorian schools in Australia. The authors describe how standard and non-standard varieties of Australian English are studied side by side and how students enjoy this type of teaching. Students realize are made aware that some varieties are given prestige while others are stigmatized. In VCE English Language classes, students organize and analyze their own collected language samples from newspapers, MySpace, Facebook, TV, etc. Thomas and Wawer claim that this is the most rewarding part of the subject: Students make their own discoveries of the varieties within their own community. Moreover, they argue that this approach suits classrooms with mixed language backgrounds. In sum, VCE English Language provides students and teachers with an enjoyable and challenging subject to explore together.

Chapter 20: ''Language lessons in an American middle school'' (Athena McNulty). McNulty teaches 8th-grade English in a rural school in need to raise its test scores in reading as well as in writing. She gives an account of her experiences from being a partner teacher with Anne Lobeck and admits that some lessons worked well, whereas others did not. She points out the necessity of offering lessons that build on each other and concludes that many of her students -- several below average in academic achievement -- looked forward to the linguistics lessons. These lessons were focused on inquiry and discovery, a method that worked.

Chapter 21: ''The diary of Opal Whiteley: a literary and linguistic mystery'' (David Pippin). In this chapter, Pippin (partner teacher with O'Neil and Honda) discusses how the literary work ''The Diary of Opal Whiteley'' can be used in the classroom (grade 5) in order to teach linguistics. The book was a sensation when it was published in the 1920s because people could not believe that it was written by a 6-year-old girl from Oregon (who claimed to be the daughter of French nobility!). According to Pippin, the Opal diary lays a foundation that triggers various kinds of linguistic inquiries thanks to Opal's unique style of writing. In addition, the life of Opal is fascinating, something which facilitates any teacher's task of successfully introducing the text to students.

Chapter 22: ''Using the Voices of North Carolina curriculum'' (Leatha Fields-Carey & Suzanne Sweat). The authors of chapter 22 are both teachers in a region of the southern United States that has grown rapidly and become far more multicultural and plurilinguistic than it used to be. For some time they have adopted the Voices of North Carolina Curriculum in their classrooms. This curriculum is considered valuable because it has, for example, enabled them to discuss biases in general after first having discussed biases in relation to language. In comparison, the latter discussion (bias in relation to language) is not as threatening to the students, so it is suitable to start with. The authors state that teaching the Voices of North Carolina Curriculum has been an eye-opener for them with regard to linguistic discrimination.

Chapter 23: ''A-level English Language teaching in London'' (Dan Clayton). The final chapter is written by Dan Clayton, who teaches an A-Level English Language course (see chapter 3) in a multicultural inner city London school. His students speak several different languages and all have experience of linguistic discrimination. The chapter deals with Clayton's method of building his teaching on his students' own language, i.e. their own linguistic resources (such as their use of slang), to teach for example language variation and change (cf. chapter 19). The author cites the fact that few people today know what 'English' is, but, nevertheless, the thread running through his students' multicultural London is a desire to use the English language ''to forge an identity and speak to others, to bridge gaps, and also to mark out territory and define identity within this shifting landscape'' (p. 277).

EVALUATION

My overall impression of ''Linguistics at School'' is very positive. With regard to the outline of the book -- three parts of approximately the same length -- it works well, moving from top-down approaches to incorporating linguistics into the classroom (part I) via bottom-up ones (part II) to hands-on classroom experience (part III). Jackendoff's foreword is insightful and heightens my curiosity about the book. The editors guide their readers with the inclusion of brief summaries of the chapters at the beginning of each of the parts I, II, and III. Furthermore, all chapters tie in neatly to one another and there are also a great many inter-textual cues throughout the book, which indicates a careful editing process. Thus, on the whole, this is an exemplary volume and it contains many important contributions.

The first chapter of the book (Battistella) opens the door to a central theme of the book, namely the raising of language awareness in primary and secondary school. Battistella rightly points out the need for linguistics to show how language that is seemingly ordinary has great depth and impact beyond its apparent immediate function. Hudson's chapter 3 is similarly enlightening in the way it invokes enthusiasm about the possibility of using linguistics in school. Hudson stresses that change takes time, but that it is worth waiting for.

O'Neil's chapter 2 may be slightly difficult to digest for readers who are not fully up-to-date with past and current conditions for education in the USA. Nevertheless, by using an example of how an email from a regular teacher (David Pippin) made all the difference, the chapter becomes interesting and appealing also to a non-American reader such as myself. Several chapters come across as very useful because of the empirical evidence that the authors generously share with their readers. One such chapter is chapter 4, which is about knowledge about language in Scotland; several useful links to the Internet are included. Another is chapter 7, where ''Do you speak American?'' and ''Voices of North Carolina'' are discussed. A third example is chapter 8 on linguistic development in children's writing, mainly because it is very informative and accounts for the results of several studies. In addition, the author provides an illustrative table (Table 8.2, pp. 119-120) including three samples of writing, representing good, average, and weak writing. Most likely, this is one of the chapters that teachers would benefit most from reading. Likewise, Wheeler's chapter 9 is also well worth reading for teachers and it is a suitable text in any tailored linguistics course for in-service teachers: an impressive account of a fast and remarkable turn-around of 3rd graders' achievement in English thanks to a linguistic approach to teaching Standard English. Wheeler uses several student examples and guides the reader throughout. In sum, chapter 9 shows that traditional correction methods fail to teach speakers of non-standard varieties the Standard English skills society demands. All this can be compared with the debate between Chandler and Truscott on the efficacy of written feedback in the Journal of Second Language Writing (Chandler 2003; Chandler 2004; Truscott 2004; Truscott 2007). It is worth mentioning that similar dialectal projects occur also in other countries; one example from Sweden is Bihl and Nilsson (2006).

Chapter 10 makes it very clear why linguists must be able to view themselves as learners; the text illustrates why the bottom-up approach makes sense and how such an approach leads to a win-win situation for both teachers/learners and linguists/researchers. Also chapter 11 makes it clear that in order to succeed in bringing linguistics into school, it is essential to engage teachers as partners in thinking and doing, something which will bring forth ''desperately needed changes in teachers' thinking and doing'', to quote the author (p. 174). Along the same lines is chapter 12, which describes a successful bottom-up project, even though the examples here do not come across quite as convincingly as those in previous chapters. Nevertheless, the enthusiasm of the teacher and linguists involved cannot be mistaken.

Both chapters 13 and 14 emphasize the positive outcomes of partner teaching, i.e., where a linguist teams up with a teacher. Supposedly, such partnerships lead to ''a goal shared by both linguists and educators, to improve education about language'' (p. 212). In the case of Denham and Lobeck, partnerships were made possible thanks to a special grant. In everyday work, most teachers and linguists do not have access to special grants. A question which remains unanswered is therefore how all ideas presented in this volume can be implemented under more normal circumstances. There is a great need for more financial efforts to support this type of development, which makes the topic of the present book also an issue for education politics. Even though chapter 15 about the Linguistic Olympiads is informative and interesting per se, it feels slightly misplaced in this book since the Linguistic Olympiads is in fact an extracurricular event. In contrast, chapters 16-18 fit the theme of the book neatly and are all filled with useful examples, comments, and teachers' experiences. Chapters 19, 22, and 23 stand out slightly in comparison with other chapters since they relate stories from classrooms with mixed language backgrounds. I assume that such classrooms are becoming increasingly common around the globe and, therefore, perceive these chapters as highly relevant: They highlight the importance of bottom-up approaches to incorporating linguistics in school and provide evidence of the fact that teaching gains from starting with a focus on students' own language variety.

Classrooms with mixed language backgrounds easily lead one's thoughts to second/foreign language acquisition and whether the projects and ideas presented in ''Linguistics at School'' would work also in such contexts. That matter is not discussed in the book, but it is worth mentioning that at least ''Do you speak American?'' (chapter 7) and Wheeler's approach to teaching formal English (chapter 9) could be relevant also in ESL/EFL and Content and Integrated Language Learning (CLIL) settings.

In the whole book, chapter 6 (about Californian educational standards) is the only chapter which left me somewhat disappointed. It was difficult for me to relate to its content, which again is probably due to the fact that I am not totally familiar with that specific part of the American educational system. And this is probably the only major drawback of the book: Most examples are indeed from the US. It would have been useful to include more examples from other parts of the world; there are some, but I still would have appreciated a few more. Except for that and the fact that some of the chapters overlap, I warmly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in the combination of linguistics and school, a fascinating topic.

Dr. Pia Sundqvist is a senior lecturer at the English Department, Faculty of Arts and Education, Karlstad University, Sweden. She currently teaches linguistics, ESL/EFL teaching methodology, and continuing professional development courses involving for example ESL/EFL teaching methodology and the use of ICT in language teaching. Her main research interests are in the field of second language acquisition and include extramural/informal learning of English (among young learners and teenagers), L2 vocabulary acquisition, and oral proficiency in English. Before Dr. Sundqvist received her doctorate, she worked 15 years as a teacher in secondary and upper secondary school, teaching English, Swedish and Spanish.
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